I'm so happy I could puke rainbows!

A friend recently got a great new job, so I made this congratulations card for him:

I grabbed this freebie digi stamp from Wonderstrange quite awhile ago, and I'm glad I finally got the perfect opportunity to use it. I colored the image & background with Copics and added detail with Wink of Stella glitter pens. It's attached to the card with an Action Wobble. The cityscapes & balloons are cut from foiled cardstock with a MFT die & Elizabeth Craft dies, respectively. The background is a silk-patterned paper from my stash. I stamped the sentiment with black StazOn ink and wrote over it with a silver gen pen.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Inkspirational: Bah Humbug - Anything but Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Die Crazy

Speedy Fox and Friends: Mostly Purple

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Happy Hanukkah

The city has hung lots of lights this year and I've spied a few Menorahs lighting up the streets. It's getting into the cold & darkness of Winter, but all the festivities certainly light up our lives!

The stamped image is from my stash; I colored it with Copic markers & gel pens, fussy-cut it with a slight border, and backed it with a vellum die cut. The cityscape is cut with a MFT die from shiny white paper and backed with a glittered cardstock. The sentiment is from Verve stamps, and is heat-embossed on another vellum die cut. The card is finished with some glitter tape and a corner punch.

Update, December 2017: I sold this card at a craft fair at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Wishing us all a year of light & peace,

Inspired by an Evening with a Friend

My dear friend visited us the other day, and we spent a lovely summer evening marveling at the fireflies (neither of us grew up with them), and watching a concert by The Arcade Fire on TV. I wanted to make him a "thank you" card, so I used the chorus of their song "The Suburbs":

The color/pattern scheme was inspired by my friend's pajamas! They consisted of blue-and-white houndstooth-patterned flannel pants and a burgundy sleeveless undershirt. I don't know, I just loved the combo!

I used the Circle Step Card Tutorial at Top Tip Tuesday, and the Distressed Houndstooth Overay digital paper by Mel Stampz. The lyrics are set in the font Droplet Lite and cut out with IO dies. I made the city-topped half-circle in SCAL. The cityscape svg cut files are from my digital stash.

I added a strip of adhesive pearls that I colored with a Fluorescent Yellow Copic marker. Because the top of the strip was also sticky, I first covered it with glow-in-the-dark glitter. It's meant to reference those fabulous fireflies!

I'm entering this into this week's Top Tip Tuesday challenge, but with a Tip, not for theme. Here's my tip:
Formatting text to fit in dies
I like to type up my own text, print it out, and use my metal dies to cut out the shapes. To ensure that the text will fit into the shape, I use Text Boxes to help me design.
Here's how to do this in Word (these instructions are for Word 2004 for MAC, but should translate to other similar programs):

• Measure your die.
• Go to Insert/Text Box. Double click on the box and a format box will pop up:

click to enlarge

• In the "Colors and Lines" tab, select "No Fill" and "No Line". Go to the "Size" tab and put in the dimensions you want. 
• Now you should be able type in your text and choose fonts. I recommend centering the text, depending on the die. For these cloud dies, I know that the top is smaller than the bottom, so I can adjust for that with line breaks.
• Print out the text, giving yourself plenty of margin space. Use low-tack tape to line up the die over the text. Cut the die from the larger sheet of paper, and run it through your die cutting machine. Presto!

Many thanks to Annette at Top Tip Tuesday for the tutorial and inspiration!

Update: This was chosen as the Top Tip at Top Tip Tuesday #105.

Thank you for visiting, and Happy Crafting,

Super Dad...on the road

I was thousand of miles of away from my dad for Father's Day (my folks travel every summer), but we spent a lovely day with my father-in-law. We went to an East Coast favorite, Silver Diner; the food is so fresh and delicious, and of course the company was great!

I made him this card using a KennyK image, a CTMH paper, and the last of my cityscape die cuts:

Funny story about the CTMH map-patterned paper: by pure coincidence, it's a map of the Bethesda, Maryland area, where is where my FIL lives! He noticed immediately, and we all had a laugh about it.

The cityscape is heat-embossed in Kaleidoscope/glitter powder. I inked the pieces with SU! Barely Banana. The ribbons were both purchased at CYDI.

I used the opposite side of the CTMH paper for the inside, and added a simple pop-up message:

The sentiment reads "Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Dad," and is by Paper Makeup.


Inspiration/Challenges:
CAS-ual Fridays #105: "Mapquest" (I know this is on the edge of CAS, but it's about as CAS as I get!)
Catered Crop: Masculine Card
There She Goes: Anything Goes


Thank you for visiting, and best to you & yours,

Super Baby

I'm an only child, but thanks to my husband's 3 fabulous siblings, we're up to 7 nephews & nieces (with one on the way)! Our newest nephew arrived just last week, and I sure had fun putting together the baby gift.

I've reconnected with a crafty friend from High School via FaceBook, and she sells her gorgeous handicrafts on Etsy at MyRandomActs on a special-order basis. For just $15 (including Priority shipping), she made these Baby of Steel "Superman" Mitts:

MyRandomActs

And here's how they were sent to me, wrapped so beautifully! That little tag she added is hand-stamped.

I wanted to wrap the mitts in a fun way, so I made a fabric pouch, using Timeless Treasures/Smirk Super Hero fabrics and some scrap white fabric:

And the back:

I started with the tutorial for an iPhone Case at During Quiet Time, but I made my own template in InDesign and pretty much just did it my own way. Not fancy, but it works! 

I've been itching to use this material since I bought it back in December, and I think it came out O.K. considering: 1) I've never done this before, 2) my machine was acting up so I had to remove the stitches a kagillion times, and 3) I totally refused to get out the iron. I broke a needle pulling that baker's twine through too!

The Newspaper-patterned buttons are from Daisy D's Paper Company.

Of course, I made a card as well:

You may remember the cityscape die cuts from several of my recent posts (archived here). The baby carriage rubber stamp is by Viva Las VegaStamps, and the sentiment is from a set that came with an issue of Cards Beautiful.

I used some Graphic 45 paper on the inside to give it more of a "baby" feel.

I wish I had taken a photo of everything all together, but it had been pouring for days while I put it all together and I simply couldn't get any good light. Anyway, it got in the mail just in time. I wish I could share a photo of our new nephew with you, but it goes without saying that he's super-cute at 6lbs 8oz!

Also, as total coincidence as I didn't know the little guy's name until his birth, the woman who made the mittens has a son with the same name as our nephew!

Thank you for visiting, and best to you & yours,

Super Dad

With Father's Day just around the corner, I pulled out one of my favorite digis, Huge Hero by KennyK, to make a funny card.

The duct tape piece is what was left on the roll...you know, after the sticky part's gone, some is stuck onto the cardboard roll? Well, I peeled that off and embossed it in my BigShot with a TH embossing folder. The birdie banner is Washi Tape.

The sentiment is from a Teddy Bo & Co. set (free with an issue of Simply Cards & Papercraft), and the airplane is a brad from my stash. I edged the skyline with a silver Sharpie.

Last year, my brother-in-law hired me to make some Thank-you cards for his Chiropractic office. He sent me the files for his logo, based on the Orlando skyline, and I have several pieces left over. You can read the whole story, and see similar projects, in this post.

Inspiration/Challenges:
ABC Challenge: Sketch #30 (oops, missed deadline!)
Cards For Men: Dad
ColourQ #191: Basic Gray, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Cool Caribbean + White
Crafty Creations #224: Superhero
Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge #126: 3 feature elements with the same letter (Brad, Banner, Birds)
Melonheadz Friends Challenge: Father's Day and/or Male-inspired
Whimsical Designs: Recycle (the duct tape is actually the remnant of a roll)


Update: I made ColourQ Courtier for the Color Combo #191! WOW, I am so super honored!

Thank you for visiting,

Hiring & Inspiring

My awesome brother-in-law hired me to make some Thank-you cards for his business, Nightlight Chiropractic. He sent me the files for his logo, made by Orlando Mesa at 407 Wraps & Signs based on the Orlando skyline, and since they were already vector images in Illustrator, I was able to export the layers into SCAL and cut them out with my electronic die-cutting machine.

I kept the cut-out sheets, and when my best friend was visiting recently, we used one as a mask to paint a background for this card for my friend's dad:

We also used the pop-up part! This was so much fun to make; my friend, who isn't a crafter, colored and cut out the suitcase himself.

My friend suggested that the image also looked like mountains, so I wanted to play with that idea. Here's my first try at it:

You can read more about this card in the original post.

I used the masks again to make this glittery card (for my friend's sister, actually).

It's really difficult to see in the photo, but the skyline is mirrored underneath. The top city is covered in glow-in-the dark glitter, and the bottom is covered in Prisma glitter, both adhered with sticky embossing powder.

The purse opens to reveal a sentiment from Viva Las VegaStamps: "The only time a woman came change a man is when he's a baby."

I used the cut-outs for some Father's Day cards:

Original Post

Original Post

And a Batman-inspired baby card:

Original Post

Plus, it came in handy for my OSAAT DT project featuring Cool Buds by BBKakes:

Original Post

I'm out of the city die cuts, but I still have some mask pieces that I look forward to using.

Thank you for visiting & for supporting my crafting,

Arizona colors

I was really intrigued by this week's "Your State" challenge at Speedy Fox and Friends, so I tried my hand at an idea my friend had while he was visiting. I have some cut-out masks from a cityscape project, and I used that to make a mountain like you see in Arizona. Although I now live in Maryland, I consider Arizona my other home... that's where my folks live, and where I was living when I met my friend. I used the same wood-stamping technique that I used on my Portlandia card to make the little "quail".

Inks: SU! Barely Banana, ColorBox, Versamark watermark ink, Versamark chalk ink
Wood bird used as stamp: Prima
Stamps: sentiment from Verve's Let It Shine set, cactus from My Favorite Things' Fred Bear Out West set, bubble border by Annabelle Stamps
Papers: SU! Whisper White, Core'Dinations
Embossing Powders: ZING! Brown Sugar, Lemonade Scentz by ColorBox  
Dies/Cutting Files: Card frame and Cityscape/Mountains designed in SCAL and cut on my Cricut, Banner die from a•muse studio, Button from SU! Embosslit, scallop scissors for corner rounding

Inspiration/Challenges:
Annabelle Stamps Challenge #157: Sketch
Color Throwdown #231: Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Crumb Cake, Lucky Limeade
CAS-ual Fridays #92: Stamp your own background
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 148: Your State

Thank you for visiting,